Doug's Darkworld

I get so many interesting comments on my blog posts. Really, I mean that. months or years after the fact in some cases. Some of my posts get steady traffic, well, permanently, as far as I can tell. And steady traffic means steady comments. More surprisingly, to me at least, is how few nasty and troll comments I get. I turned moderation off fairly early on, and only very rarely have deleted a comment. Even when people disagree with me they are usually polite, and sometimes correct, I have made mistakes. And I can be persuaded by logical argument, I no longer think Jane Fonda should have been tried for treason for example.

The comments on The Hopkinsville Goblin case were fairly typical. Most of them grasped what I was saying, the case has a certain amount of basic verisimilitude, and no matter what the cause, it’s interesting from psychological, social, and historical perspectives. Just the fact that people are indeed afraid of ghost stories is an interesting phenomena. It’s also kind of a good case for separating the wheat from the chaff so to speak. Some people are convinced the case has to have supernatural aspects. No, no it doesn’t. Some people are convinced that a completely mundane explanation is the only explanation possible. No, no it isn’t.

The Dylatov Pass Incident is a good case in point. I still maintain that hypothermia, paradoxical undressing, panic, scavenging animals, poor forensics, and post event weird detail embellishment provide a satisfactory, if not compelling, prosaic explanation. A number of commenters vociferously defend the position that something weird has to be involved. Well, maybe. I even started writing a post addressing some of the points raised, but ultimately decided it was a waste of time. It’s like arguing with 9/11 Truthers, they can’t even concede that there might be other explanations than their’s, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for debate.

Sometimes people leave comments of prodigious length. I guess I’m glad people are so inspired by my writing to write such comments. Usually I read all comments, but in some cases, it’s just too much (the zenpadiso comments.) Or just too weird (Richard, at the end of the comments.) Sometimes people personally involved in events I describe have chimed in. I can only be flattered in such cases. In the Lawndale Thunderbird case a family member added some details, maybe undocumented details, I don’t know. And even if people are pretending to be personally involved in the case, that’s flattering too.

Well, crap, only half a post. I have dozens of draft posts that only made it to half a post before I realized there wasn’t a full post’s worth of material to write about. Even less in many cases. A personal failing really, since a good writer should be able to make anything interesting. Back in the day when I was a corporate drone, I once caught my assistant stuffing a bunch of my office memos into her purse. I was like, oh, taking our work home with you? She said no, her boyfriend really liked my writing style, so she brought him everything I wrote. Hopefully he eventually found my blog, or maybe he had a thing about office memos. I never write those any more. One of them got me fired, honesty is not appreciated in the corporate environment. Well, maybe it’s appreciated by some, but the lying ass-kissers get the promotions most of the time.

There’s been a  recent codicil to the Hopkinsville Goblins case. Don’t read about it here. Don’t read about it because it’s just a contemporary account with no empirical evidence except footprints. Helpfully illustrated above. I’m sure I could find images of Bigfoot footprints too. It’s gonna take a carcass to convince me, not footprints. I mention it because it makes the supposition that the goblins are real, and are some sort of cave dwelling species. Could the Hopkinsville Goblins be some sort of cave dwelling humanoid? Well, Kentucky has a lot of caves, and we know that all sorts of creatures have evolved in very odd ways in caves. And Flores Man shows that humans can indeed evolve in odd ways in odd environments. Could there be a Homo hopkinsvillean man species that occasionally emerges from caves to torment humans? It’s more likely than aliens emerging from UFOs, I’ll grant that.

Which, frankly, isn’t granting much. This new Hopkinsville story neatly demonstrates one of the problems with these sorts of stories. As soon as the original story hits the fan, all sorts of embellishment is added by other people. So so many stories about weird events turn into far more prosaic (if still interesting events) when the post-event craptacular details are omitted. Roswell, Kecksburg, Flight 19, Dylatov Pass, Jocko, and indeed Hopkinsville fall into this sad category. Just for starters.

Nonetheless there are still any number of mysteries to write about. Suggestions always welcome.

(The above image is claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. Credit and copyright, well, it’s pretty clear on the image itself. If it had five toes or even four, I’d be more impressed. Three? Give me a break.)